Hi all, I will confess again that I am a newbie gardener, so I don't know if there is ANY use for concrete chunks really, but I have a whole trashcan of them left over from a basement window project. If anyone is interested in it, you can come take as much as you'd like! :) I am in North Seattle. Cheers, Ashley

Thank you Virgil. I'm trying to get my head around the differences and which would work better for our purposes, if the cost difference isn't double. Personally I prefer the look of a shingle roof but would be amenable to a metal roof if it really was the better choice for hurricanes and for insulation. Oaktown, yes I have seen some. Florida "cracker" houses were always built with metal roofs and so were some of the smaller craftsman houses. Cool roof was one of the things I was trying to explore too. From what I am reading the metal roof does keep the house cooler, but the difference between cement and metal isn't too great. Correct me if I'm wrong. As for hurricanes, I think a lot depends on how well and what method was used to adhere the roof material. I've seen video of metal roofs go flying too. Frankly, I'd rather lose a few tiles than a whole roof. :) No earthquakes that I know of in FL. And our area of FL hasn't had a direct hit hurricane in over a century. In fact the last hurricane that even produced hurricane force winds where we live was hurricane Donna in 1960. All others have only produced tropical storm force winds. Now having said that, am I dumb enough to think we couldn't be next? No so I will do everything possible to make sure our house is as secure as possible.

When you are dealing with a slab, you have to know what pans you want and how the drain configuration is done - otherwise - they will simply block out the shower area and not pour anything - which is an option - then they can set the pan when it's selected and plumb accordingly. All they need to have is a rough idea on what end it's going to drain and put in a trap, etc. The linear drains I have see are really just linear "on the top" and they they slope and drain under the grate / cover into a center or offset round drain hole - so they are not all that different than a regular drain - other than the placement on the edge vs the middle.

Thank you all - at this point, I am second-guessing everything! Didn't think building a house would cause me to go crazy but it has! Concrete was poured early this morning and looks great. The issue is that we have no water service at our new house so I never got a straight answer on how the crew will keep the concrete moist. Revolutionary Gardens, my two kids graduated from Miami - this is the first time in 7 years we won't have anyone there to visit - don't know when you graduated but there has been a lot of exciting developments in the past 5 years!